Professor Lupe Fiasco: "Drill Music in Zion" review 

'' It's hard being a Lupe fan, go to Harvard to be a Lupe stan I ain't sayin' that I'm harder, it's just harder when it's in Lupe's hands."" - Lupe Fiasco SLR2

If anyone remembers, about a year ago Lupe Fiasco posted a video on Aesop Rock. In it, he was talking about his technique and some of the ways he executes his ideas and it was just a lot of a fun to see such a well respected artist being so enthusiastic about another. It also made it clear to me how RARE it is for an artist to support another in a real active-listener type of way. You can just see how incredible he would be as an academic lecturer on the topic of hip hop and you can also just feel his love for the subject in a way that is nothing but an absolute love of the subject matter and nothin is more charming or motivating in a professor than that imo. I would LOVE to see Lupe’s lectures. I wish more artists would approach hip hop similarly just to get that insight. I know how corny the name sounds but the book “How to Rap” was probably one of the most fun reads on the subject of technique in a similar vein. It’s just an organized collection of top MC’s talking about different aspects of rhyming. For example, there’s a chapter on different ways people use symbols and little systems to write down their flows and cadences and tech n9ne talks about using drum notation. Just stuff like that. Damn I’m so off topic, sorry! But check it out. It’s a fast and fun read.

Can’t wait for the deep dive into Lupe. Also a series on Mural, Mural jr, Ms Mural 👀

One thing about the Yakuza line in Precious Things that I think is worth explaining for many who may not know: in Yakuza films (not sure if this happens in real life), when gangs come into conflict they often resolve it by having the instigator cut his finger off as a form of atonement. So “treated us like the Yakuza . . . you don’t use us to write the raps anymore” is his hands saying he turned against them and cut them off.

Soundtrakk is Lupe's prominent producer. He has worked with him since he very first album and is responsible for all of his signature records. The title is a reference to The Matrix. Zion is where all the humans lived outside of the Matrix. In the 3rd film, the machines where attempting to literally DRILL into the city to kill the last of humanity.

Love everything about these vids Professor! If only all teachers were as good as you, maybe I'd still be in school :-)

Lupe the greatest to ever rap

Thank you for shouting out Flavortown 😂 that was my request. also You do not need to shorten these reviews. With Lupe I would watch it all if it was 4 hours long

That "Autoboto" breakdown had my jaw drop. Well done.

Great analysis. Check out Tetsuo and Youth (cover art also by Lupe). "Mural" is a dense, rolling, masterpiece. "Dots and Lines" is running in at least 3 dimensions. So many others... guy's a genius.

Really good album and review, Lupe Fiasco is one of the couple handful’s of elite top tier emcee’s that are considered Jedi masters on the mic, and who really push the pen game and craft forward in Hip-Hop culture! And he’s said in a interview that he recorded and made this whole album in only a few days, impressive!

Loved this video. Would love some more lupe videos! Maybe a breakdown of the mural trilogy

Thankd for the review it was a really entertaining listen. The Jazz deep dive was a little unexpected but a welcome surprise. As a far of anime it's always really interesting to me how thing's can recontextualised for a western audience during the dubbing process. As for Lupe, his music can be really dense so this album felt pretty accessible compared to some of his other albums. Fun fact he painted this album cover himself and did the same for his 2015 release Tetsuo & Youth.

The first "Mural" is off Tetsuo and Youth. After you listen to that album, watch the breakdown videos on the channel Times New Roman. For the songs: Mural, Adoration of the Magi & Dots and Lines. Good day sir, thanks for the review.

His first studio album Lupe Fiasco: Food and liquor and his follow-up Lupe Fiasco's the Cool. Both are certified classics. You will learn all about his characters "the streets, the cool, the game, etc." He was/is going to write books/graphic novels about the characters used in his albums. Loved the breakdown. The breakdown of Autoboto.. mind-blowing

great Video! Its super interesting to listen to your deeper analysis.

Please keep doing longer reviews. They are very much appreciated.

If you talked more about this I’d listen. But I loved this review! Thanks for talking about this album. I loved it. It was beautiful

By far the best breakdown on lupe DMIZ, got a new fan here. Please do some more lupe breakdowns👍🏾

Love your video!! Just subscribed!!! You just gave my favorite artist the review he deserved.

As per your request, please talk about the album more. I’d watch 2 hours on ms mural easy

This is the first time I've watched a RU-vid video that clocked in at over an hour......and it was well worth it ! Love the analysis. Love this album and it's all the more impressive that he recorded all of this deep and moving content in 3 days!!! I'm in awe he's truly one of the greatest artists of all time

I really enjoyed this review and the insights you brought with it, definitely subscribed and look forward to more Lupe and others!

This is fireeeeee!!! What a beautiful way to gain knowledge, thanks Prof! 🔥🔥

Love this review! Normally I can’t watch a full video, nothing to do you with just my adhd. But I love Lupe and his music but I know I miss some of what he’s saying/doing. I usually need to go to the internet to help me dig deeper. I enjoyed your thorough review.

Great content and review I would love to hear you break down more of lupe fiasco and long video are not an issues!

I’ve been waiting for this!!

Beautiful review. Learned a lot. Thank you.

Fantastic review. I love the album even more because of the insights you have given. One small highlight from Ms Mural is just how he rhymes the phrase "rejections or mistakes" throughout the entire verse. The technical rhyming fun he has while delivering layers of meaning is what makes him so engaging to listen to.

First time watching you content, currently still blown away by your explanations and breakdown....

Fantastic review professor, you truly do this album and Lupe as a whole justice, there is so much to dig in and in my opinion he truly is the greatest to ever do it in his field!

Kiosk really blew my mind. To find the art in the kiosk is crazy. As someone who has worked at a kiosk it is a very unique experience. You really have to work for your sales and are looked at by passing shoppers as an annoyance in many cases. They way that some people treat you as appears to associates in normal stores. It’s really a strange beauty to it and a surreal experience. Man the fact that lupe took that and made it into art. Wow.

Would love to see a dissection of "Mural" from the Tetsuo and Youth album

Yes. I'm angry at you for not Reviewing his Tetsuo and Youth hahaha. We would all love to hear you talk about the opening track, Mural, for an hour.

This channel is excellent. What your doing is important

Lupe The 🐐

Zion is the underground refugee society that Humans had in Matrix. Drill music in Zion is Lupe drilling a hole to Zion with his new album

Please make these videos longer. I could easily listen to another hour on the breakdown of this album. I hope you do a video on the entire Mural series. Thank you. Peace and love to ya.

Subbed. I like your input, research, and breakdowns.

Zion partially is a matrix reference to the underground city in the 3rd movie, the last vestige of humanity away from the machines hunting them, but also I do see possible religious connotation. Carrera Lu is a flashy street alter ego of Lu he says is writing his best lines. Themes on the album of flooding, death (dmiz = demise), molding rappers of the future instead of trying to be a Superstar still. Just remembered the pac man references in the album because of Ms Mural (like era era era era sounding like his noise). The original mural had a verse that vaguely references pac man.

Damn you created a hip hop minor at your school? That’s awesome! Love your analysis, you have a good ear. Sub’d!

So glad I found this channel, your content is amazing. The KDot and Drake beef was a blessing, glad I found this channel.

I'm sure you've received a lot of requests to do Tetsuo and Youth and his older albums already. Would love to hear your thoughts on T&Y and contrasting it with his earlier works (Food & Liquor, The Cool, Lasers) that contain more of his popular hit songs on a major label.

I know this is an older video and someone may have already pointed this out, but "the Bears" in Kiosk is also supposed to be a play on "De Beers." Apologies if this has been said before. I thoroughly enjoyed your review/breakdown. Keep up the good work! AVAA

Love the review. ❤🧡💙 Thanks Prof. Lupe fiasco is my favourite rapper.

Loving this album. Glad to see you covering it.

Watching all the way from 🇳🇦, shouts out to the prof✌️...

This was an amazing review! You need to review food & liquor, the cool, tetsuo & youth, and drogas wave

Seeing my former professor pop up on my RU-vid recommended on a Wednesday is not what I expected

Thanks for the in depth review. There's so many layers to Lupe's music; it deserves breakdowns like this. A few things: 1. Who plays with Ken? Actually, Punk, one of the best street fighter v players in the world, routinely plays with Ken. 2. You need to listen to food & liquor, the fahrenheit mixtape series, and Drogas Wave.

This is the only level of dissection Lupe's album deserves. The reactions don't do it justice.

This is the most amazing review of any album ever. Thank you for this.

Review Lupe Fiasco - WAV FILES. It deserves all the attention.

Certainly a great take on the album. Would love to see a part 2 as well.

Please do more!

This is a great, thank you so much for this. I’m sure you’ve heard it before but if you enjoy Lupe’s music, you MUST hear his album, The Cool!

warning: Drogas Wave is great, but the musicality is even less of a focus there than it is here. For anyone who wants an easier listen, I recommend his first two albums, Food & Liquor and The Cool

Thank You For This In-depth Review.

That Jazz analysis is spot on when it comes to what we see in American pop culture

Autoboto chorus might also be referencing The Matrix movies (specifically Reloaded), since “The One” gets his abilities from “The Source” (also the machines are literally drilling their way to Zion to murder everyone)

As someone who just discovered your channel off this video, you could definitely talk in depth for hours on these songs and I wouldn't mind

Great great review. Would love to see your review on tetsuo and youth and/drogaswave…. Will you do it?

Enjoying the reviews, I'm serious. Im a big Lu fan and to hear your view of breakdown is hit more than miss, respect.I only deeper point, I'm sure you've found by now Drill Music is also a play on the movie Matrix 2 when the free human race lives in a place called"Zion" and when they feel the machines are drilling down and they may meet their end they threw a dance "rave" and that is like this, Lu's last ditch party in his stronghold (his zion) is being infiltrated by the industry / machine pushing the same mubble rap on what is a beautiful vehicle. I also love what you said It's your music and my music and I'm just glad you enjoy hip hop! P.S. I love Lupe and Griselda, such is art.

Tetsuo & Youth is one of my favorite albums ever, really hope you get to that one day...you could make an hour long video just on 'Mural' 😂

Great review and yes you should talk longer. There are probably less then 5 youtubers that even go half as deep as you do on Lupe songs. Which means there is literally only you that is willing to give his lyrics the break down they deserve. Tetsuo & Youth and Drogas Wave are 2 of my favorite Lupe albums and they are as deep as the ocean. Hope you break those down also even though they are longer.

My current city Orlando has been addressing the Redlining effect for years that was put in place probably more recently than most cities. However, The city seems to make great strides to alter this decades' old situation.

Bro this got so nerdy AHH I wish I knew ppl like you and the Dead End Hip hop guys in real life! I loved the Transformers part esp. And the Malcom X story yes I have a copy

Lupe has a lot of amazing concepts but if you do another Lupe review, I highly suggest dots and lines.

Lupe is arguably the greatest rapper to ever live...he's the only rapper I can think of with 4 classic albums ('Food & Liquor', 'The Cool', 'Tetsuo & Youth', and 'Drogas Wave'). Perhaps too soon to say, but this album is likely AOTY so far, imo...while It's also one of his more sonically subdued and lyrically accessible projects to date. I can't get enough of it. Great review, Professor!

Brilliant, i didn't want it to end.

I could have listened to you talk about this album for hours lol

A Lupe review!!! Yes!

The idea of there being drill music in heavens/Zion kind of reminds me of a question about Plato’s world of forms. If there is a perfect form of everything than is there also a perfect form of things like war and disease?

I stumbled upon this video by happenstance while going down the rabbit hole of what is the mind of Lupe and am wondering if you have reacted to his track known as mural. I would love to hear your perceptions from it!

Tetsuo and Youth and FL pt 2 were my top 2 for Lupe until this album. After a few listens it's starting to creep up my list. It may be top 2 project for him.

Great video, subscribed. Can you link your source on Cinque (Amistad) as a slave trader was? Haven't seen anything backed with sources. I know some african tribes sold slaves, but stopped when they heard about the extreme conditions. This is different though, but l have never really found the source.

I think playing as Ken is a black thing. I didn’t meet people who prefer Ryu until I was 15

Vampire Hunter D is a anime/manga staring a half human half vampire vampire Hunter who is struggling to find and keep his humanity and protect who he is hired (at first) to protect. Alucard would be the main character from Trigun who has fully embraced the chaos and evil of vampire and used as a mercenary to get kill monsters that are doing evil in the world (I forget why but alucard the prince of darkness works for a government like agency lol)

I highly appreciate your level of understanding. You sould look into Aqua Stone Throne.

I like to move forward. And that means it’s hard for me to go back to hear things I missed. But, Drogas Wave is definitely worth doing so.

I think the beats are great. Love everything about this album this is my favorite Lupe album and maybe the best album last year or one of

Do a video about the 3 Mural songs. They're other-worldly songs and you'll probably make me understand things I haven't.

Interesting take on the album title. I immediately thought “The Matrix” considering the climax of the trilogy concluded a giant drill making its way into the last human city named… wait for it… Zion. Which considering how Lupe is with nerd culture there could be a lot to unpack on that line of thought as well.

Not gonna lie… I reeeeeaaaaally want to hear your take on DROGAS WAVE. That album literally changed my world view and how I interpret life itself.

A bad creator can make me turn off a 3 minute video. A good creator can hold my attention for a full hour. Can't wait til he gets to songs like Mural and Wav Files. This album was good, but this is not Lupe's Illmatic. One thing that really separates Lupe from those like Kendrick and Nas is I don't think he'll ever let himself be as overtly personal as they've gotten. LASERS was probably the closest but Atlantic ruined that album.

Learning about synecdoche and metonymy from a Professor going into Lupe. Guess Lupe stans do go to Harvard or MIT where he works now 💀 Edit: Flavortown is a meme made by Guy Fieri

You still should absolutely listen to food and liquor, the cool, Tetsuo and youth, and Drogas wave

I don't want to be all in your comments but "on faux nem" is a play on "on bro and them". So you were half right. Bro and them being your dead friends if you were in the streets in Chicago. Basically if you wanted to swear the legitimacy of a claim you would put it "on bro and them" similar to putting something "on god" or "on my momma". Now you have faux which sounds like foe, which is the inverse of your bro, and I think you get it from there.

Professor I agree with you that this is an amazing album but please check out death of the cool

Love the review, man! great work. I do think we need to be honest though. I feel like people get so wrapped up in their ideologies that it hurts more than it helps. Im referring tot he Buffalo shooting. Definitely needs to be talked about (and i would love to hear your take on what is going on in American in that regard), but the way you brought it up is troubling to me. Lu is talking about the need for rappers to be involved in the criminal activity and how that leads to the death of many young black men. Then you bring up Buffalo. A racist act is not what is causing these rappers to die young. Every death I can think of was at the hands of a black man. The deaths are a result of the gang or “hood” mentality which is a much more serious threat to the livelihood of African Americans in the US

I wish you heard Tetsuo and Youth

with love from Flavour Town

I would love to hear a breakdown of an Aesop Rock record 😂

Since you started listening from his HOUSE EP, can you please delve into Food & Liquor and then The Cool?

I know this is old hat but.Carrara is a super expensive white marble. Just ..you know. Love your channel

A little anime thing is connected to that hand rhythm. Vampire Hunter D(name and title of movie) is a Vampire that had one hand that's a parasite hand, which helps him in tight moments during or after fights. Where Castlevania Alucard is also is a Vampire that has hands, but don't need them to swing his weapon. Both are the son of Dracula-Alucard

I like your video. I like the way you go about discussing what happens in the music and the way you allow yourself a broad range of interpretations of the music. I am one guy with an opinion and it will likely run counter to the other opinions you've heard in your life, but you should stop thinking that all black people are victims of some sort of specific racial oppression. It's not true and many of us don't like it. It's the popular narrative if you consume mass media and if you're a sympathetic and empathetic person it might feel like the right thing to do in harboring these feelings and ideas, but its not all true.

"We're going back faster than the DeLorean."

37:07 Alucard is a pretty interesting one because it's just Dracula inverted. So a lot IPs have used that name for their "dragons"[use TV tropes for an in depth explanation of what a dragon is]. There is an Alucard in Castlvania, but the most famous Alucard is definitely the one from Hellsing. That Alucard is notable for being used as the final solution for a British noble woman with a relationship that looks like slavery if you squint at it but it's clear that he's too powerful to actually he controlled and is only playing nice because it amuses him.

Alucard is Dracula backwards, in castlevania Alucard is a Half breed I think even related to Dracula so yeah the right hand is Wasalu Lupe and the left half is Carrara Lu